George Oscar Carlson
George Oscar Carlson, 80, passed away at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport on April 8, 2020, from pneumonia following surgery to clear a carotid artery. George, who was living in Trumbull at the time of his death, formerly lived in Hawley, Pennsylvania, for six years after a lifetime in Connecticut. He and his family had lived in Darien, Stamford, Bethel, Danbury, and Newtown.
George was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Gladys and Carl Carlson and grew up in Darien, Connecticut. There, he attended public schools, where he met Sandra Isbell Wiley, who steadfastly stood by his side through 55 years of marriage before succumbing to lung cancer at their home in Pennsylvania on November 4, 2019. Between high school and marriage, George served in the U.S. Army from 1959-1962, spending his time “painting rocks and plucking chickens” at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
George believed in hard work, thrift, and self-sufficiency. He began working and saving his money from the time he had a paper route as a child until he retired from Southern New England Telephone Company in 1993 after 30 years of work as a lineman and then as a telephone installer. Throughout his career with SNET, George was an active member of the Connecticut Union of Telephone Workers, rising through the ranks of the organization to become Vice President of the Plant Department of the Executive Board and then President of the CUTW. During his tenure as union leader, which coincided with the era of deregulation, the weakening of trade unions, and the rapid transformation of communication technology, he worked hard to negotiate good packages for his members, protecting their wages and benefits as well as the independence of the union, at every turn. George once said that he enjoyed union politics because “I like a good fight” and “I want an appropriate wage for the work I do. What you have to understand is nobody gives you anything. What you have, you fight for, and you fight to keep it because once it’s gone, you’re not getting it back.”
George applied this thinking to his family life. When his daughters, Vikki and Sandy Carlson--both of whom survive him--were young, he delighted in taking them camping on the islands in Long Island Sound for weeks at a time with his phone company buddies and their children. He enjoyed spending summer weekends with his daughters and his wife on their boat in the Sound, fishing, picnicking, or riding fast to make waves. He delighted in backyard pool parties and barbecues with friends and family. Later, he would share the pleasures of boating closer to home on Lake Lillinonah with his grandchildren, Adella Dzitko-Carlson and Alex and Adam Trompetta, and the magic and wonder of the ocean farther from home in North Topsail Beach, North Carolina. On Topsail, George and Sandra spent many years enjoying summertime with their grandchildren, daughters, and son-in-law Ed Dzitko.
When George wasn’t puttering around his garage, doing yard work, checking the stock market, or watching his grandkids in the pool, he was outside admiring his garden full of flowers and watching yellow finches light on his bird feeders. In Pennsylvania, he would marvel at the bears and the smaller wildlife that invariably conquered his vegetable gardens.
George will be remembered for the silly stories he would tell his grandchildren about his imaginary exploits in his younger years, afternoons in the backyard or the family room overseeing a safe place to play, the many years he and Sandra spent raising their grandsons, and the straight-up delivery of wisdom he derived as a deeply committed working man with a drive to succeed in every way he could. One of his best lessons: “If you can be five minutes late, you can be five minutes early. No excuse for making people wait.”
Time is precious; it is life.